


Finding a Home

by orphan_account



Category: The Huntsman: Winter's War
Genre: F/M, Slight bit of PTSD, mild swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2016-12-07
Packaged: 2018-08-23 22:29:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8345215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: This happens after most of the events of The Huntsman: Winter's War, but some of the elements from the ending do not occur. Instead, Ravenna does not come back, and the mirror is never found. Freya is alive, and the dwarves never existed at all. When Erik and Sara meet, they decided to leave together and try to find a home. They are living in the North, but nowhere near where Freya's castle is, further North and then a little West.Not Snow White and The Huntsman compliant, no not at all.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was banging around in my head, trying to get out. Hope you enjoy. Comments are always appreciated.

War. The clang of swords and the noise that the arrows made, as they flew through the air. Two armies clashed, one in armor as dark as the night, shields painted with the crossed swords on the blue battlefield. These were the soldiers of the Northern King Agarius. His army stood opposite a more ramshackle looking bunch of what looked to be teenagers holding an assortment of weapons. This was the army of Freya. Freya, called Freya of the Frost and Freya, Queen of the North.

"Is this all you can throw at me, Snow Bitch." Agarius spat from his horse at the head of his army. His armor was a burnished steel, shining gold as the light from the rising sun shone from his back. He had the advantage of the sun to his back, and against such an army as this... _Mere children _The king thought, then he forced his mind to return to the battle. It was now time to attack, time to catch them off guard and grant them the mercy of quick deaths. "Charge!" King Agarius yelled, drawing his sword and pointing it in front of him. The sound was echoed as his men behind him drew their own weapons. Then, the cavalry started the battle, charging the opposing army.__

But Freya's army would not flee, instead they held their ground, each falling into their own ready stance. When the horses were upon them, they used their own weapons to kill the horses and then the men. Only a few of Freya's soldiers had been wounded, but the cavalry was not most of the opposite army, and the infantry soon followed. The battles that ensued were obviously going to be won by Freya's troops, but still Agarius's men fought, even though their chances of winning were almost zero.

Two soldiers broke away from the fighting, Erik and Sara, they ran for the king's horse. He had been trying to escape the fighting, but his armor made him stand out like a beacon. they ran across the frozen wasteland, quickly catching up with the horse. Sara had shot two of its legs and it was barely limping along with the heavyweight king on its back. When Erik grabbed its bridle, it sank to the ground. Then, Sara shoved one of her knives into the king's stomach. The blade cut easily through the soft iron of his armor and the blood ran to stain the snow. Erik quickly grabbed the crown from the man's head and tucked it in the pack that he had tied to his back for this purpose. Then, the two ran back to where their army was fighting, and they fought, turning the tide of battle for some of the teenagers who would have been killed but not for a knife, axe or arrow that saved their life.

But the battle was soon turned against them, as the remaining enemy army realized that they must, at any cost take out these two killers that were winning the war on their own. Wave upon wave of soldiers turned away from attacking the bulk of Freya's army and turned instead to kill Erik and Sara. They fought for a while, surprising many of their enemies, but even they would have to tire eventually. A gloved fist came through the air and punched at Sara's face, snapping her head sideways, before she fell to the ground. Shortly a sword was thrust into her stomach. Erik yelled, and fueled by rage, attacked all the harder.

Sara watched from the ground, she had been stabbed in the stomach by one of the enemy, and was only alive because she had to return to Erik. But now she looked on in horror as Erik engaged with foes. He was surrounded, encircled by men with spears. There was no way he would live, having already lost an axe. He seemed to know this too. But instead he watched her closely, knowing if he were to die, it would be looking at the woman he loved. Sara knew that she needed to get up, to save him but she had no strength left. Still her mind be persisted in telling her to get up. She stood up, and nearly fell back over, as the pain was so overwhelming. She drew her knives from the sheaths on her back and launched into battle. Had she been in top form and uninjured, the group of five would have been easy to defeat. But she was not, and what should have taken a few seconds took around a minute, even with Erik helping. Then it was done. The enemies slain, but the world seemed to get darker with each breath. Sara looked down at her side, blood was now flowing from it so fast that all the snow around her for several feet was stained red.

"Sara!" Erik exclaimed. "No, this cannot be happening. Come back, Sara!"

But his voice seemed to grow fainter and fainter, until she could feel and hear nothing.

But no, that was not right. She heard a voice and it was cold. Night air gently played with her hair.

"Sara, wake up. It is only a dream." Erik was calling, but how, had she not just died? "It is only a dream." Erik repeated, running his hands through her hair, keeping it out of her face.

She sat up slowly, hand flying to where the wound had been. But no longer, for it was only a dream.

"Are you alright?" It was Erik, she was sitting against him, her head on his chest.

Sara tilted her head up to look at him. "As you said, it was just a dream. But it felt like more than that. It was a battle, I was injured and you were about to die. I tried to save you, and together we succeeded, but I died. I felt fear, knowing that I would never again see your face, or wake to you beside me. You and I have had too little of love, because of Freya."

Erik punched the ground. "If Freya dares to send men after us, I will kill them. You and I will be free." Erik stood up. He started to pack up their temporary campsite and saddle the horses. Sara soon joined him.

"Erik, it gets worse every night. I dream of war, and I cannot push away the horrors of it." Sara told him.

Erik cupped her head with his hand and ran his thumb down her cheek. "We will go further north. Do you think we should find a village to live in or live in the woods as a family?

"Living in the woods would mean less people know about us and it would be harder for Freya to find us." Sara answered.

Erik nodded and mounted his horse, finding the sun and calculating north from it. The two set off in search of a home.


	2. Chapter 2

The snow crunched under Erik's boots as he walked to where he had tethered his horse. Sara was asleep and he needed to begin cutting wood so that he could build their house. 

Two days ago, they had found this clearing and that night Sara's dreams had ceased, so with that as their sign, they stopped and decided to live here. Erik had fashioned a sled the day before and today he was going to chop down a few trees and lay out the skeleton of the house. Erik would cut the trees during the day, an during the nights he would carve them to better fit together. Once all of the trees were cut and carved, he would, with Sara's help, begin to lift them into place and build the house. It was to be a log cabin, large enough for a small family to live in, for while he had never admitted this to Sara, he wanted a family. Now that love was no longer outlawed, it was possible to live his dream, but he would wait and see what his wife wanted to do. In the mean time, while Erik was cutting down trees for their house, Sara was most likely going to go hunting. They knew that they were going to be living here, and they would plant a garden eventually, but for now, they would need to hunt or to gather what food they were going to eat, until such a time as they would start a garden, after finding or purchasing seeds.

Winds whipped his hair around his face, a light blanket of snow would probably fall sometime today, and if it did, then there was assuredly a much bigger one coming sometime during the night. The air was cold and bitter, but he was used to weather like this, Freya's castle having been a haven of ice and snow. Erik was not When the trees were tied firmly to the sled, Erik started the ride back. The ride seemed longer to return then it had felt when he was going to cut the trees down, but Erik knew that this was merely the weight of the trees making it harder for his horse to pull the weight. But a battle-horse was bred to take the weight of a fully armored man and all of the weapons he might need into battle. Erik would have walked back, but the distance was quite far, at least fourteen kilometers. It might have been a little bit of a strain, but Erik was certain that his horse could stand up to pulling the weight of the three trees, the sled and himself back to the clearing in which the house was going to be built.

When he returned, to his surprise, a man waited in the clearing. Instinctively, Erik slipped his axes into his hands. "Who are you?" He called, dismounting his horse. On instinct he dropped his weight to his front foot, ready to throw his body forward and attack. The man noticed, his eyes quickly flitting over the motion. Erik froze, realizing what he had done, he had just shown the other man that he was a warrior. While the axes that he held in his hands might have only been common axes, used by the local woodcutters, his stance would have proven beyond a doubt that he was ready to fight. Mentally, Erik slapped himself across the face. He changed his stance to be more relaxed, but was still tense and ready to fight.

"My name is William. I was looking for my cow, she ran off. Have you seen her by any chance?" The man was young, but talked slowly, trying to make sure that every word was correct. This man had most likely not gotten a good education, probably only spending a few years at the village schoolhouse when he was younger, before being pressed into work to help his family when he reached an age around ten. The man was dressed in the typical attire that farmworkers wore, but it was ragged, and had clearly been used for many years. Probably the man had not had enough money to get a new one, perhaps even using one passed down from his father.

"I have not." Erik answered. "Where do you live?" The man seemed good natured, and Erik relaxed even more, sliding his axes back in to the loops on his back. He extended one hand, to shake William's.

William grinned, and extended his own hand, shaking Erik's with a surprisingly strong grip. "I live in the village. It is many days away, but I have been looking everywhere. Without my cow, I got nothing. The only other thing I can do is find farms to work at, and there aren't many of those." While he talked, his face became downcast, but when he was finished, he gave a slight smile at Erik and tilted his head, as if to say, 'Well, there's nothing I can do about it, so I better make the best of my circumstances'. "Well, thanks anyways." The man called William turned and left, walking out of sight as he was concealed by the woods.

Erik shrugged, but continued with his work. His axes worked seamlessly, one falling on the tree trunk while the other prepared to strike another blow. Each swing was in time with the next and timed perfectly. He had decided to cut the notches into the trees now, instead of going into the forest, if he left now, he might return to find that William had stolen everything.

Sara woke up, hearing the noise the axes made. Her hands flew to her knives, drawing both from their sheaths and standing up quickly. She returned them to their scabbards when she realized that no one was there, only Erik. Sara crouched by the fire, warming her hands for a minute before finding her saddlebag and pulling out her clothing. She quickly put it on and and walked over to Erik, where he was cutting the trees. "I should go hunting, we will need food before long."

Erik nodded and watched as she slipped into the woods, unknowingly in the same direction as William. Erik started to speak, but paused when he realized that with the winds she would not be able to hear a thing. If she met William in the forest, she would be able to defeat him, with her skills as a warrior.


	3. Chapter 3

A deer bounded off into the woods. Sara considered shooting it, but continued creeping through the undergrowth, bow at the ready. She did not want to kill an animal that was so small she would need two, preferring to only kill one that would sustain her and Erik longer. It was a gamble though, for if no other deer or elk were to be found then she had missed the only opportunity for food.

Again, a rustle in the bushes, and an animal jumped forth. An elk this time. In a practiced motion, Sara raised the bow and drew the string to her cheek, sighting along the arrow. She breathed out, and released the string. The arrow flew through the air, striking true in the animal's neck. She walked over to the elk and removed the arrow. Then she put the bow and the arrow back in the quiver on her back. _I never miss _Sara thought to herself, smiling slightly as she drew a hunting knife from its scabbard at her waist. This knife was not curved, instead, the point had been curved upwards so that she would not hit any of the organs of the deer while she gutted it.__

Another rustle pierced the calm of the woods, but this one was to loud to be an animal. Sure enough, a man stepped forward. He had a sword already drawn, and was advancing towards her. This man was now in armor however, instead garbed in farm clothes with a straw hat that looked truly ridiculous. Sara had to fight back a laugh. But it was clear from the way he held his sword, angled toward her carefully. This man was a master with his weapon. He had clearly spent much time practicing over and over to become a master of the blade he carried.

"I heard about you, the two who ran from their queen. And for what, love?" He spat. "Love won't save you, not from me. Our queen sent me, to kill you and return with the other one, she says that you have had enough chances to be loyal." Every words was clearly enunciated, but he spoke quickly, voice full of hatred and loathing. "Did you not think that Freya, Queen of the North would forget you? You who she trusted, you who she gave her personal attention. You were honored above all else, set as a role-model for those of us still training when you were a warrior. And you betrayed that trust, Freya gave all to you and you betrayed her, choosing to break her _only _law__

Sara returned the hunting knife to its scabbard. It would be no use if she were to fight. She paused for a few seconds trying to decide if she had seen him before. Eventually, Sara placed him. It was the man Erik had talked to, William. She had not seen him, but had heard his voice and recognized it now. "I thought you were looking for a cow." She answered, drawing the knives from their sheaths on her back.

"No, just making sure that your husband won't follow us. Together, the two of you would kill me, but I only have to kill you and then he will go mad. I was sent by Freya, the queen you left. And you, Sara Oath-Breaker will die now." William raised his sword and brought it down in a sweeping overhead blow to attack Sara, who only just got her knives up in time to block. The next blow she narrowly avoided, ducking under the side cut that would have taken off her head.

After only a few seconds, it became clear that Sara would win. She quickly disarmed the man, and threw him to the ground, knife at his throat. "Surrender and I will let you live." Sara told him. She began to put uncomfortable pressure on the knife when William refused to speak. Then he opened his mouth and she eased up on the blade.

But all William did surrender, instead he spat. "You were always weak." Then he drew two hidden daggers from his sleeve and shoved one into Sara's side, at the same time whispering, "Better to die faithful to your queen than die a traitor." The other dagger William plunged into his own heart, for in his mind it was far better to die loyal to his queen than it was to live and endure whatever tortures the two lawless deserters might concoct.

Sara gasped sharply as she pulled the knife from her side, before pulling the roll of cloth that she kept in her pack, which was beside her in the ground, and wrapped a length around her waist, tying off the end before untying the bandages back in her pack and swinging it back to her shoulder. Then she cut the meat from the elk into pieces that would fit on her back and carried them and the hide with her as she walked back to where Erik was beginning work on their house.


	4. Chapter 4

She had not been hunting for that long, but Sara was already walking out of the woods, but immediately, Erik could tell that something was wrong. Her back was bent, from the weight of the pack. One of her hands was pressing on a bandage that looked new, but to be already turning slowly from white cloth to the red of blood. Sara was pale, and her steps were uneven.

Erik ran to Sara, covering the last couple of meters between them. Just as he reached her, Sara collapsed, Erik only barely catching her in time. Erik carried Sara back to where they had put blankets next to a log to form a rough bed. Erik pulled Sara’s hand away from her side, and removed the bandage, cursing under his breath as blood flowed freely from the wound. Erik rummaged through one of the bags they had brought until he found a flask of mead and the bandages. Sara was watching him, carefully watching him.  
“I have to clean your wound before I can replace the bandage. Do you understand?” Erik asked, unscrewing the cap on the bottle.

Sara gave a slight nod. Then, Erik poured some of the mead on Sara’s stomach. Her mouth opened in a wordless scream, as it felt like her body was lit on fire. Erik replaced the cap on the container and poured a steady stream of water to wash the mead off. Erik then wrapped the clean bandage around her waist and tied it tightly.

“Are you alright?” Erik asked, putting the bottle of mead on the ground next to them.

“Yes.” Sara replied, her voice discolored by pain.

“Who hurt you, and how?” Erik asked, watching Sara concernedly. “You were not even hunting that long.”

She winced from the pain in her arm before answering. “It was the man you were talking to, the one who told you his name was William.”

A flash of surprise crossed Erik’s features as he recognized the name. “William... Wait... How do you know about William? He was a ragged farm-boy that came to me and wanted to know if I had seen his cow. But, you were asleep... weren’t you?”

“Do you want me to tell you the whole story?” Sara asked, “Or do you just want me to answer your questions as you ask them?” She smiled as she spoke, to show that she was only joking.

Erik smiled back. “You could tell the story.”

“When I first entered the woods, I noticed that there was many trees that would provide good places to hide and watch for animals. I walked a little further in and crouched behind a bush. A few minutes later, I saw a deer walking through the woods, but when it crossed the path that I had been following, it began to run off. I considered shooting it, but it was to small to feed us for more that a few days, and I waited to see if I could spot anything else. After that, I saw and elk. It looked good, so I shot it and was about to cut it up when I heard a movement in the bushes behind me. I turned around, and I saw a man in old farmer’s clothing and a ridiculous ragged straw hat. He was holding a sword and started to walk towards me. I sheathed the hunting knife and drew my fighting knives. He told me that he had been sent by Freya and that she had sent him to kill me. He said that she gave me many chances to prove my loyalty. But you, she wanted you back. He said that Freya was going to give you another chance, to let you join her army again. He ran at me, he had clearly been trained to be a fighter in Freya’s army, but his anger against us for betraying our queen took away his skills. I won quickly and pinned him to the ground, I had a knife to his throat, but he drew two knives and killed himself with one and stabbed me with the other. I managed to bandage my injury, and I had cut up the elk and put the meat in my pack, so I came back. But it was a deep wound and I was losing a lot of blood. Then, you found me.” Sara finished her story.

Erik nodded that he had listened, then his brows knit together in confusion. “So, William was actually one of Freya’s soldiers and he wanted to kill you and bring me back to serve Freya again?”

“Yes.” Sara answered him. “That is exactly what I am telling you. We need to be careful, or Freya will send more of her men after us. If they find us, and there are too many of them...” She trailed off, not wanting to finish the thought.

They sat for a few seconds before Erik stood up and walked back over to where he had been cutting the trees. He drew his axes again and began cutting the notches into the tree trunks. Sara pulled her pack over to her and started to removed the elk hide and meat from the pack. She piled the meat on top of the log that she was resting against. The hide she hung from a tree. “I will tan that hide tomorrow.” Erik told her, “Then, I will return to building our house. What are you going to do?”

“I think I will see what plants I can find. As soon as we finish with the cabin, we are going to need to go into the village though. We do not need to make friends, just purchase seeds for our garden and then leave. True winter will be setting in soon, not just the typical cold of the North.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter skips ahead a couple of weeks later. Just a clarification in case anyone is confused.

Erik lifted the two ramps that he had made and leaned them up against the opposite wall. Then, he and Sara rolled the next log up the ramps and onto the wall. He held a thin plank that he had cut up against the log to prevent it from rolling back down. Erik held it there while Sara quickly climbed up the wall and rolled the trunk the rest of the way up the wall and balanced it on top of the two logs that were cut with the notches that were made to hold the log in place. The tree trunk fit into the notches and did not fall off. Erik put the pole down and climbed up next to Sara. He pulled a hammer from a loop on his belt, and took several metal spikes from his belt. He and Sara had bought them along with seeds for their garden, and several other things. Erik pounded the spike into the tree trunk. Because of the length of the spike, it went all the way through the tree and partially into the wood of the other log beneath it.  
Then, they climbed down and repeated the process with another tree trunk. Their house was already built higher than their heads, and they were only going to build it a little higher, so that there was a decent enough amount of space above their heads to hang things from the ceiling. There was only ten more tree trunks to layer onto the walls, before they put the roof on.

Sara’s side was mostly healed, but still pained her occasionally. She had already marked out a plot of land that would become the garden but as winter was going to set in soon, they would need to plant it in the spring after the chill of winter was no longer lingering, but it really was less of a garden and more of a farm. Erik had helped her to cut the grass away from the plot of land that, and then she had tilled it while Erik started the house. This way, when spring came, the soil would be mostly ready for planting. Another round of turning the dirt over and breaking up the clumps would be needed, but it would be less work in the long run.

Nearly two hours later, they were dripping with sweat, and had finished the walls. Erik and Sara climbed down the wall and hitched both of their horses to the sleds that they had made. They rode their horses into the woods and Erik began to cut more trees. Sara waited, bow strung with an arrow nocked resting in her lap. They had taken precautions after Sara had been attacked by William, being careful of who they spoke to and trying not to be noticed whenever possible.

“I think by the end of the day tomorrow we might have the house done.” Erik said, his body already falling into the familiar rhythm of swinging his axes. For the roof, each tree he felled would count as four, as he would be cutting the tree in half against the rings, before cutting the two parts into half again.

Sara nodded, turning her focus back to her husband for a moment. “Then we can have walls around us when we sleep. It will be nice not to switch off on night watches every night.” Then she refocused on scanning the forest around them watching for anyone to jump out from behind the bushes.

Erik finished and hauled the trees to the sleds, lashing them down so that they were prevented from falling off. Then, he mounted his horse and the two started to ride back to their house. When they reached it, they dismounted and Sara tied up the horses and helped Erik unload the logs from the sleds. As soon as they had piled several on the ground, Erik began to split them in half, using a hammer and some wedges that Sara had carved for him the night before. Sara continued to cart the logs from one of the sleds to the pile and then from the other sled when the first was finished.

One of the logs was left uncut and was to be used as the central rafter beam. Several of the smaller trees were cut to fill in the holes that would be left along the sides of the roof. These trees has been chosen to fill the holes because they were twisted to badly to be used anywhere else. They had been cut smaller and cut in half opposite to the rings so that they could be used more than once and that nothing would be wasted. The trees were finally all cut, so Erik and Sara climbed once more to the top of the walls carrying with them several of the cut tree trunks. They had already leaned the central rafter against one of the finished walls. Sara held the logs in place while Erik hammered two spikes in to hold it in place, one on either side. Then, they moved to the next place to hammer the next trunk down.

When all of the slabs were nailed to the walls, they started to lift the central rafter up the wall and then Erik nailed the ends down. After this, Sara passed the half trees up and Erik nailed them to the center. When all of the half logs were nailed down on one side, they climbed down and started a fire and began to cook their elk meat from the day before. When it was cooked they eat it and then lay down for the night, still against the log that had served as a headrest for the past nights since they had come there. The embers of the fire still smoldered, giving off a warm glow that would still be warm even in the morning and make an easy way to relight the fire, both to cook on and to keep warm during the cold chill in the mornings. The world soon blurred and faded as Sara fell into sleep, comfortable in the warmth of the fire.


End file.
